1. Field of the Invention
The present invention concerns a method and a device for planning the automated loading of a load carrier (in particular a pallet) with packages.
2. Description of the Prior Art
For example, an automated planning of a palletizing or loading pattern (i.e. an arrangement of packages on a load carrier) is known from EP 1 211 203 B1. “Packages” as used herein designates individual goods or goods bundles in general, in particular those transported by manipulators.
DE 10 2007 001 263 A1 discloses a method for checking such palletizing patterns with regard to the stability of the package stack, i.e. the packages arranged on the load carrier, by constructing virtual package layers and determining characteristic values for these virtual package layers.
In order to avoid damaging packages and a collapse of the package stack, it is known in practice to classify the packages that are to be placed into ranking classes that enable a rule-based generation of the package stack. For example, higher classes are assigned to more stable packages and lower classes are assigned to softer or more fragile packages. An overloading can be prevented by a rule that, for instance, prevents the arrangement of packages of higher classification on packages of lower classification.
Due to the number of packages to be classified and rules to be mapped, not only is this method complicated and difficult to implement and handle in terms of calculation, but also often lead to more disadvantageous, in particular less overbuilt and not very densely packaged, package stacks in which packages are barely staggered with one another.